Claire and the BabySitters Club
by Cartmansbaby
Summary: Claire Pike loves being a member of the Baby-Sitters Club! Her older sister Mallory was once in it too! Now, Claire and her friends run it, but who knew how hard running the BSC could be? (rated for language and stuff later on)
1. Chapter 1: Dinner With the Pikes

**Need a baby-sitter?**

**Save time! Call:**

**The Baby-Sitters Club**

**and reach six experienced baby-sitters.**

**Karen Brewer, **President** Suzi Barrett, **Alternate Officer

**Nina Marshall, **Treasurer** Myriah Perkins, **Secretary

**Claire Pike, **Vice-President

**Jenny Prezzioso, **Assiociate Club Member

Claire Pike loves being a member of the Baby-Sitters Club! After all, her older sister Mallory was once in it too! Now, Claire and her friends run it, but who knew how hard running a club can be. Jenny never shows for meetings and can't baby-sit right, Karen is too bossy, Myriah's too busy, and Suzi's always forgetting meetings _and _her baby-sitting jobs! Can Claire help to set the all new Baby-Sitters club straight?

**Claire and the Baby-Sitters Club**

**"C**an someone please pass the butter?" I asked loudly. No one seemed to have heard me. Being the youngest of four kids is tough sometimes, one of those reasons is sometimes you can't be heard at your own Friday night dinner table.

My name is Claire Pike and I'm thirteen years old and in the eighth grade. I used to live with seven of my siblings but one of them moved out and three of them just recently moved out. The oldest Pike is my big sister Mallory, who goes to college in Massachusetts. (We live not far from her, in Stoneybrook, Connecticut.) Sometimes she visits us and sometimes we go and visit her. She's going to be a children's book author and illustrator. Then there are the three identical triplets, who just graduated high school. They've found what they call a "bachelor pad" and just moved out last week. Their names are Adam, Byron, and Jordon, in that order. Next there's Vanessa. She's seventeen and she's probably moving out soon too. Vanessa writes poetry books and she's hoping to go to college and write more books. Next in line is Nicky, he's sixteen and just got a car. But, he's the only boy left in the family, so he's kinda upset by that. I think he'll manage. Then there's Margo who's fifteen and I have to share a room with her. Margo is pretty cool, once in awhile. And then of course, there's me the youngest. I just finished seventh grade, today was our last day of school.

Oh yeah, and guess what? My five friends and I just recently started up our own club last week. It's a baby-sitting club. Well, now I've got another story to tell.

Way back when I was only five years old, there was a club called The Baby-Sitters Club and it was run by a few members. (I think it started out with four or five members.) The club met a few times a week and they held meetings from five thirty to six and people needing a baby-sitter would call during those times and they'd almost always get a sitter for their kid. Nowadays, the original members of the club are adults and me and my friends figured we could start up the club again for the little kids around here. We just knew it was a great idea. So now, we hold meetings at my house from five to six Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Also, now that it was summer we knew we would get way more jobs then we did a week ago. I'll tell you more about how the club works and about us members later, but for now back to dinner.

Mom finally reached across the table and passed me the butter. I buttered my last roll, ate it, and quickly excused myself. I can't stand sitting at that table for a long time, I usually hurry up and eat and then leave. I ran up to my room, before Margo got there. Nicky and Vanessa have their own rooms. Nicky used to share with the triplets and Vanessa used to share with Mallory. Now, I still have to share with Margo. I plopped down on my bed and listened to the quiet. I sighed, quiet is good at my house.


	2. Chapter 2: The First Day of Summer

**T**he very next day was the first day of summer! I barely could believe it. Also, it was Saturday, maybe my friends and I could do something together. Margo was already gone when I woke up Saturday morning. I figured she'd probably be out with _her _friends. I was very happy for this. But, don't get me wrong I love being a part of a big family. I got up and got dressed. I was wearing a pair of pink sparkly shorts, a white tank top with a pink star on it, and pink high heeled sandals. Then I put on some gold bangle bracelets on both wrists, and then put my hair up with a poof rose scrunchy.

I clamored down the stairs to see who was still home. Vanessa was in the rec room, absorbed in a poetry book and mom was cleaning the kitchen from last night. I sat down on our livingroom couch. To tell you the truth, I was bored. I wished we had a club meeting today, then my friends would all be over at my house and we'd be having fun. I glanced over at a framed picture on the stand beside the couch. It was of me and Margo, when I was five and when she was seven. I was wearing a sailor dress and Margo was wearing painters pants with a tool belt. She was happily munching on a banana. I smiled and then laughed. That picture always cracks me up. It was taken at the Little Miss Stoneybrook Pageant years ago. Margo and I had both entered, and lost. My friend Myriah Perkins had one second place. I think she's very talented.

Mom walked in and saw me on the couch. "Dear, you look pretty bored. No baby-sitting jobs today?" Mom asked.

"Nope." I replied. Mom looked at me in thought.

"Why don't you start a new book?" she suggested.

"No thanks. I don't feel much like reading." I answered.

"Okay, how about watching a movie?" Mom suggested, trying again. Then I had an idea. "Mom, can I ask the club members if they wanna sleep over tonight?"

"Well...all right. All of them?"

I nodded pleadingly. Mom agreed and I called Karen Brewer, Nina Marshall, Myriah Perkins, Suzi Barrett, and Jenny Prezzioso, the new members of the Baby-Sitters Club.


	3. Chapter 3: The New Members of the BSC

**N**ow I'll tell you a little about my friends.

First, there's Karen Brewer. Her older step-sister, Kristy Thomas was the original founder and president of the Baby-Sitters Club, when Karen was six. I gotta say, Kristy was a great baby-sitter. Karen has a little brother of her own, Andrew who's twelve. Karen's parents are divorced and she goes back and forth every other month between her two houses. This month I think she was living with her mom and her step-dad. Karen and Andrew's dad is a millionare who lives in a mansion with Kristy's mom, Karen and Andrew's step-mom and their step-mom's kids from when she was married first. Their other step-siblings are Sam and Charlie, who don't live with them anymore (I think they are off at college) and David Micheal, who's fifteen and goes to my school. Karen goes to Stoneybrook Day School, a private middle school. Oh yeah and I can't forget, Mrs. Thomas adopted another daughter from Vietnam when she was two, her name's Emily Michelle and she's ten now and we sit for her alot. Karen is a lot like Kristy, take charge and full of ideas. Sometimes her ideas get her into trouble and sometimes her mouth does too. Karen is also the oldest member of our club and our new president. She's a pretty casual dresser, like Kristy is and Karen has blond hair, blue eyes, freckles, and wears pink framed glasses. She's allowed to wear contacts, which she does most of the time now.

Next there's Nina Marshall. She's our club treasurer, which means she collects our club dues and makes sure we earn enough money. Nina has a younger sister named Eleanor. Nina has long curly blonde hair, well actually I should say she _had _hair like that. Recently she dyed it all black! Nina dresses a little like me. She's pretty trendy. Nina is also down to earth and hardly gets into any trouble. She's just _there_ you know?

Then there's Suzi Barrett. She has a big family too, only hers is one kid short and doesn't like her family the way I like mine. She has two older brothers one nick named Buddy (his real name is Hamilton), he's fifteen years old, and her step-brother Taylor, he's fourteen. She has an older step-sister named Lindsey who's sixteen and my brother Nicky's girlfriend, she has another step-sister named Madeleine who's twelve (a year younger than Suzi), and she has two younger siblings, her ten year old step-brother Ryan and her ten year old sister Marnie. Suzi's a fun person to be around, I bet _she's _never bored! Oh yeah, and Suzi's the club alternate officer, meaning when another officer's not at the meeting she gets to have their job and do their duties. Suzi and her siblings live with her mom and her step-dad, (Ryan, Taylor, Lindsey, and Madeleine's dad) Franklin.

Then there's Myriah, who I already mentioned. Myriah grew up with her two younger sisters, Gabbie who's ten and Laura Beth is eight and we sit for both of them a lot. Myriah is very talented and takes a lot of different classes. Myriah's hobbies (besides sitting of course) are singing, dancing, and acting. Myriah is really nice. She's probably my closest friend besides Suzi. Myriah is our club secretary, I think that's a really good job for her because she's really neat. What she does as secretary is write notes, and keep track of the club record book, where all our jobs are written down and any other things such as her classes and other appointments we have. It also has club info such as names, phone numbers and client's addresses. It's a really useful book and I'm glad we have Myriah to manage it.

Last but not least, is Jenny Prezzioso and I have to admit, she's pretty new to this baby-sitting thing so we made her an asscioate officer, so we call her we when really need someone to take a job. Jenny still comes to meetings because Karen thinks its only fair that every club member comes to the meetings. Jenny is pretty nice, but she can be really snobby. No offense, Jenny is kinda spoiled. She asks for something, and in a pinch she has it. Jenny has a little sister named Andrea, who is only eight.

So those are the members of the Baby-Sitters Club these days and I think we're a pretty good team. We're a real mix of sugar, spice, and all things nice if you ask me.

Anyway, as soon as everyone had arrived we gathered in my room, which mostly serves as the club headquarters if Margo's not there. Sometimes we meet in the livingroom, den, or kitchen. It doesn't really matter, because each room has a phone. Everyone spread out their sleeping bags and blankets and we all sat down on them. (I was on my bed.)

"I'm already bored. I just know this is going to be a boring summer." I told everyone.

"I totally agree." said Suzi.

"I don't agree. Fun things are always going on at my dad's house. Hey, Claire you have a big family like mine, I'm sure there's a bunch of fun things you're gonna do." Karen pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess so." I shrugged.

"Aren't you going to Sea City though?" Karen asked me. This brightened me up alot. "Yes! I forgot!" I cried.

Karen laughed. "Hey, remember that year when me and Andrew went to Sea City with you guys?"

"Yeah, I do remember. Remember when I used to call 'Burger Garden', 'Gurber Garden'?" I said.

Everyone laughed at that. "You did? Really?" asked Myriah.

"Yeah, I really did. Everyone used to ask me, 'What is that place called?' and then I'd say, 'Gurber Garden'! It was the funniest thing." Everyone laughed some more. I loved Sea City a lot. Every summer my family goes there and there were two years that stuck out the most in my mind. One year was when my mom hired Stacey McGill and Mary Anne Spier to be mother's helpers and they came with us. They're former Baby-Sitters Club members.

"Hey, do you remember when Margo and I got to be on the float in that parade? Remember when we got to dress up as mermaids?" Karen asked me.

I laughed. "Yeah, we've got picutres." I replied.

"Well, this summer _I'm _going to be very busy." spoke up Myriah.

"Yeah, what are you doing anyway?" asked Nina.

"I'm going to summer camp. Overnight for a week in July." Myriah replied.

"What about you Jenny?" I asked. Jenny was sprawled on the floor, looking as elegant as ever. Her mom and dad call her "Angel" and the only kinds of jeans Jenny wears are the designer ones. Right now, she looked like a fashion model, and Nina, Myriah, Karen, and I looked like regular every day teenagers. Jenny was wearing a white silky tee shirt with slits in the sleeves and "Angel" inscribed on it with blue and silver glitter, she was also wearing a frilly pink skirt with beaded butterflies on it, a silvery charm bracelet dangled from one wrist and on her face was lots of silvery make-up, even though we weren't in school.

Jenny sighed. "I'm not sure yet. Maybe I'll go to summer camp too."

Nina, Myriah, Karen, and I almost burst out laughing. That wasn't the sort of thing Jenny would be caught dead doing.

"Oh...that's um, great Jenny." I said.

"I know one thing for sure, I'm going to be baby-sitting my sister all summer long." said Nina.

"Me too," everyone groaned, then we all laughed.


	4. Chapter 4: Summer At Sea City

**S**unday morning, all my friends left early because believe it or not we all had baby-sitting jobs that day. Myriah checked the record book before everyone left. Karen was sitting at her dad's house for Emily Michelle and Andrew, Nina was sitting for her own sister, Myriah was sitting for her sisters, and Jenny was sitting for _her _sister!

Wanna know a secret about me? There are generally two reasons I hate being the youngest Pike. One reason is that hardly anyone's around anymore. Just one more year and Vanessa's gone, then Nicky, and then Margo and then...that's it. I guess it might be nice when I'm the only one left but, I already told you I love being part of a big family. The other reason I hate being the youngest is, well being the youngest means you have no siblings to look after. People look after you. You know? I felt pretty down in the dumps when all my friends had younger siblings for sitting charges. But one thing really made me happy that afternoon, it was around lunchtime actually.

Lunch is a pretty hectic meal as well as dinner usually. Sunday we were having a smorgasbord. Lunch happens like that quite often in the Pike household. Ask any of us. Mom and Dad were home for lunch too and as soon as we all had our pick of the food that was spread out on our long kitchen table, we were ready to eat. The table seemed a little empty now with the absence of four kids, but I dealt with it. We all dug in except mom. She tapped on her glass with a spoon to get our attention.

"Kids, please listen up. As you all very well know, every summer we go on our usual trip to Sea City, New Jersey. This year I-"

"Please! I wanna go!" I cried suddenly. I had the horrible feeling mom was gonna cancel our usual trip. This year we didn't need baby-sitters anyway. Also, just because Mallory and the Triplets were gone didn't mean we still couldn't go on the annual trip. Right? Mom set down the spoon.

"Claire please let me talk." she said.

"Okay."

"What I was going to say was we are still going to Sea City this summer. This month in fact. I know how badly you all want to go. Is that okay?"

Heck yeah it was okay! Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and I began talking about it excitedly.

"I can't wait to collect more shells. I could probably make some jewelry out of them." said Margo, who has a very large sea shell collection from past summers in Sea City.

"Can I drive my car there?" asked Nicky excitedly.

"Maybe I'll write a whole book of poems on family vacations and then comprise it into a sort of picture diary..." Vanessa trailed off, in her own world.

"I can't wait to do some shopping, and golfing, and swimming, and-"

"Claire, slow down." laughed my mother. I couldn't slow down, I was going to Sea City again! Mom announced that we were leaving in about a week, next Saturday was the day we would be leaving. I couldn't wait to tell all my friends, maybe I could invite one or two of them to come with me! I was just too, too happy.


	5. Chapter 5: School In June

_Sunday_

_Well, today was an okay day for baby-sitting. I mean summer's here and well, what's there to do? Emily Michelle and Andrew were way bored. Man, you said it yourself Claire, things do get boring in the summer. Luckily, I had the best idea...._

**H**mmm. Karen's idea was pretty good. But not the _best_ idea. (Sometimes she gets carried away with her ideas.)

I can't stress it enough how boring things can get when it's summer time. I like school, and I know for a fact Karen does too and possibly, maybe Emily Michelle does also. She's going into middle school, her first year. Karen's going to start high school this school year. Well anyway, well I was pondering over things to do and who to invite to Sea City, that same day Karen was over at her dad's house to baby-sit ten year old Emily Michelle and twelve year old Andrew.

They were bored as can be, laying around their livingroom, on their backs. Maybe bored enough to just not do anything. Their fancy air conditioner was on full speed and all Emily Michelle was doing was moaning about how cold she was. Karen was sprawled on the couch suggesting things for her to do like, "Make a puzzle", or "Clean out under your bed". Oh yeah and I forgot to mention, they have a pool but I guess that idea was already passed by and ditched as well. Andrew was forbidden to watch TV so he was moaning too, and finally he just went upstairs to his room.

"Hey, let's go in the playroom and find something to do." said Karen. Emily Michelle didn't object so she just followed Karen upstairs, somewhat slowly. Karen plopped herself on the floor of the very large, cluttered, play room and began absentmindely stacking up some old blocks. Emily watched her for a little while, from her spot at the little drawing table in the playroom.

"Karen?" she asked after awhile.

"Yeah?" said Karen as her block tower went loudly crashing down.

"I was just wondering, do you miss school?" Emily asked.

"Yes, I do. It's better than being bored right?"

"Right." replied Emily with a smile. Then Karen had the idea.

"Hey, I know what we can do! Let's have our own school. We can do all kinds of neat things!" she said excitedly.

"Okay! That sounds like fun." So Emily agreed and she and Karen worked hard to set up the playroom as a school. It was actually pretty neat what they did. They used some overturned cardboard boxes as desks and they used two boxes put together for the teacher's desk. They set up some more "students" using stuffed animals and dolls, then Emily put a peice of paper and a crayon or marker on each desk. Then as a joke, Karen placed an apple on the teacher's desk.

"Okay, I'll be the teacher." stated Karen and she plopped right down on the cushion behind the "teacher's" desk. Emily Michelle didn't seem at all bothered by Karen's, well, bossyness. If I was watching Emily I would've let her be the teacher. Before class began however, Karen checked on Andrew, who was building with Lego blocks and then hurried back to the playroom. Karen knew Andrew might feel as if he was too old for playing school anyway.

So class began. Karen wrote down some of the things they did in the notebook. Whoops. Did I explain about the notebook? I'm sorry I should've earlier, but I'll still tell you. See, when Kristy began the club years ago she told the other club members to keep a diary about each of the sitting jobs they went on. I guess it was useful because it provided a lot of information about the kids they sat for so the other members could learn from each other's baby-sitting experiences.

Sorry about that, but back to Karen's job that afternoon. She and Emily did some work, mostly art class though. Then they had gym out in the backyard and finally they settled for snack time. Karen fixed everyone Oreos and milk and they all sat down at the kitchen table, which I might add is the same exact table we have, with the benches. Emily Michelle told Karen again how much she wanted to go to back to school. Karen was glad at least, to do a little schooling, even though it was the beginning of June.


	6. Chapter 6: Miss President

**"M**eeting time!" I yelled as I hurried down the stairs to greet whoever was at the door first. I was so, so glad that it was Monday, and club meeting time too. Thank goodness. Margo was sitting on the couch in the livingroom watching _LRL_.

"Could you keep it down?" she spat at me when I reached the bottom of the landing. "Yes sir." I replied smiling. I was too happy. We'd only had three meeting so far, and they were always fun and surprising. No two Baby-Sitters Club meetings were alike. Nina and Myriah were first to arrive. Mrs. Marshall had dropped both of them off.

"Go on up." I told them. Next to arrive was Suzi and then Karen. It was exactly five so I decided not to wait around for Jenny, so I told Margo to tell her to go to my room when she arrived.

Once in my room, we all rushed to find spots. I sat on my bed, Myriah and Nina sat on Margo's, Suzi sat in my fluffy purple butterfly chair, and Karen perched herself in the director's style chair at me and Margo's vanity. I laughed. Mallory told me that Kristy _always _sat in Claudia Kishi's director chair when she conducted a club meeting. (Claudia was the old vice president. Back in the day, the meetings were held in her room all the time because she had her own phone and personal phone number.) Karen grabbed me and Margo's cord less phone and set it on the vanity top after clearing a space.

"Okay, let's get this meeting on the rode." Karen started, loudly I might add.

"Hey, where's Jenny?" wondered Nina.

"She's late I guess. We can't have a late club member." Karen said.

"She's only our associate member, she doesn't really have to come to every meeting, does she?" asked Suzi.

"Yes, she has to. Jenny must show dedication if she wants to be _my _club." Karen answered. Okay, I didn't know what to say about that. This club wasn't just Karen's club, it was all of ours. No one said anything for a few minutes.

"Hmmm. If Jenny isn't going to show for this meeting then why hasn't she called?" wondered Myriah. I had been wondering the same thing. Karen rolled her eyes.

"Now, down to business. Um, Nina, why don't you do your job? We can wonder about Jenny later." Karen snapped. Nina blushed and then found our club dues can from inside a fake jeweled treasure box from under my bed. That's where I keep all our club stuff. Nina also took out the record book and our notebook. Nina shook the jar.

"Dues anyone?" she asked sweetly.

I bet you're wondering what the dues are for. Really, we each only pay a dollar a week. So that's six dollars a week in total. We use the money for throwing parties for the club and for the Kid-Kits.

Kid-Kits are decorated cartons of toys, games, books, and puzzles that we bring along on sitting jobs some times. The original Baby-Sitters Club had them too and we all admit we loved them as kids, and we decided to continue that tradition. Guess who thought of the Kid-Kits in the first place? Kirsty. To tell you the truth, we hadn't really made our Kid-Kits yet. We had to save money first.

So Nina collected our dues and Karen noticed we were exactly one dollar short. "Myriah, make note of that in the record book so Nina doesn't forget to mention that to Jenny." Karen commanded. Myriah wrote it down in the treasury part of the notebook. After that we got a job call! Karen answered the phone first since it was laying right next to her. Gosh, I wanted to answer the phone too, I'm the vice-president!

"Yes, this is the Baby-Sitters Club. President Karen Brewer speaking...yes, uh huh...right...okay. What time? From...okay, yep. Thank you for your business. We'll get right back to you with a sitter. Good bye." Karen hung up. Myriah was ready with the notebook.

"Well? Who was it?" asked Suzi eagerly.

"It was Mrs. Newton. She needs a sitter from one to five to six thirty next Friday for just Lucy. Myriah are you writing all this down?" Karen asked. Myriah was writing as fast as she could.

"Yes, I did Miss President." Myriah answered.

"Well, who's available?" I asked.

"We all are actually...but that time will interfere with our meeting time, remember? So, who's it gonna be?" Myriah told us. Karen spoke up first.

"I can't take it. I'm the president and therefor I should _never ever _miss a meeting."

"We can't give it to Jenny, she's not even here." I pointed out.

"Right, you don't show, you don't get jobs." said Karen. We all agreed with that. In the end, I got the job and Suzi was going to show up as the vice-president while I was gone for that meeting. Too bad, I was going to be missing the last meeting before we left for Sea City. That's when I remembered, mom said I could bring a friend with me. I wondered who to invite as the phone kept ringing and Karen kept answering it. After our fifth job call, which was Mrs. Loudane needing a sitter for her eight year old daughter

Elly, (Nina got the job) I decided to go get us snack. Suzi helped me and we brought up a bowl of popcorn and a can of Mountain Dew for each of us.

For a little while we had no calls so I told everyone that I was going to Sea City on Saturday. I didn't tell my friends that I could invite a friend. I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up.

By six, everyone was pretty tired out. Karen had worked us hard that night and Jenny never called or showed up.


	7. Chapter 7: Urgent Agenda

_Tuesday_

_I am so sorry everyone. I totally forgot about this new tap dance day camp I'm going to once a week. It's only for a few weeks I promise, so now you know I'm not available to baby-sit on Tuesday mornings and afternoons. Most of all, I'm sorry Claire for ruining your afternoon. As secretary, I know this is all my fault and no one elses. It won't happen again. (I hope)_

**Y**eah, I really do hope. Myriah totally got on my bad side on Tuesday, the day after that long hard meeting. Worst of all, Jenny hadn't even called to say she was sorry or where she was during Monday night's meeting.

Well, that Tuesday afternoon, I was all ready to go to the city pool with Margo and Vanessa when my bedroom phone rang. It was Myriah, and she sounded pretty hectic. "Claire? I, I...I don't know what happened- I, just, it's just that-"

"Myriah? Calm down already. What's happening?" I asked her over the phone.

"I'm so sorry, about this Claire, but can you take my job over at the Papadakis's today? Please?"

"I guess. Why?"

"I totally forgot that I have dance day camp on Tuesdays now. I forgot to write it down! I am just so busy I guess. Look, I gotta go. Bye!" and that was that. I groaned and looked up the job in the record book, checked the times, wrote that I had to take it, and marked off that Myriah had dance day camp on Tuesday mornings and afternoons. I told Margo and Vanessa to just drop me off at the Papadakis's on their way to the pool. I was very disappointed that afternoon when I got to the Papadakis's. I thought about telling Karen at our next meeting what Myriah did. I decided I better do that.

The Papadakis's live right across the street from Karen's dad's house. There are three Papadakis kids. First there's Linny, the oldest. He's sixteen and he's a friend of Kristy's brother, David Micheal. Next there's Hannie who's fifteen and one of Karen's best friends. Last but not least, was the one I was sitting for, Sari Papadakis. She's nine.

I hated having to go to their house and explain to Mrs. Papadakis what happened. She didn't get mad, but she was pretty displeased. We wanted our cleints to be happy with us, just as they had been when Kristy, Claudia, Dawn, Mary Anne, Jessi Ramsey, Stacey McGill, Abby Stevenson and my sister Mallory had ran the club. I knew Karen would be very mad at Myriah. Mrs. Papadakis told me where the emergency numbers were and what to give Sari for a snack later.

I found Sari reading a book called _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_ aloud to herself on a wicker couch on the sun porch.

"Wow, you must be a good reader to be reading that book." I said to her as I sat in a matching wicker arm chair near her.

"Who're you?" asked Sari when she saw me.

"Oh sorry. My name's Claire Pike and I'm going to be your baby-sitter this afternoon," I introduced. Sari smiled.

"You're funny. You sound like a waitress." she laughed. I laughed too, I guess I probably did.

Sari has dark brown hair and a very cute smile. She was wearing her hair in pigtails tied with yellow ribbons and a yellow flared sundress with a silk flower on the sash. On her feet were white jelly sandles that looked rather dirty.

"I like you hair ribbons." I told her.

"Thank you. I like your necklace, very classy." replied Sari. My necklace, by the way was one I got at Claire's, it had a golden dolphin charm on it.

"Thanks." I replied.

"Have you read any of the Harry Potter books?" asked Sari. I had and we had a pretty good discussion on the subject of the books over our snack, which was pink lemonade and granola bars. Around two the ice cream man, known as Mr. Tastee came around and I bought Sari and I each a treat. The other neighborhood kids came around, including Emily Michelle, whom Karen was watching.

I told Karen about what happened with Myriah and she was really mad. We sat on her dad's front porch and watched Emily Michelle, Sari, and Skyler Korman jump through the sprinkler Karen had set up.

"I can't believe that. How are parents supposed to trust us with Myriah canceling all the time?" asked Karen. I shrugged .

"I really hope it never happens again." I told her. Then again, I decided I had had a fun time with Sari. She was pretty cool, and probably my favorite sitting charge yet.


	8. Chapter 8: Late

**_Wednesday_**

_**Today was my most embarassing baby-sitting job yet. I was scheduled to baby-sit Danny Dawes from four to five, just an hour's easy sitting job right? Well I guess maybe I was a little wrong because I totally spaced out and forgot about the job. I'm really, really, sorry guys. I must have picked up this bad mind habit from my mom. I'm tellin you, I am very sorry with all my heart. **_

**S**ure enough, at Wednesday night's meeting, Karen discussed Suzi and Myriah's "accidents" endlessly, but before I get into that, I'll tell you what happened with Suzi and her job on Wednesday afternoon.

Firstly, Danny Dawes is only eight years old and he and his mom, dad, and older sister Nancy, who's Karen's other best friend, live right next door to Karen's mom's house. Karen was out that day with her mom, step-dad, and Andrew so of course, we gave the job to Suzi because she's never even sat for Danny before.

That morning, Suzi, and all her siblings had to pitch in and clean up the kitchen to get their weekly allowance. Suzi told me it took a long time. They all had to sweep the floor, wipe the table, spray the fridge from sticky stuff, wipe the counters, _and _do the dishes. I would've been wiped out after that. At around three, all her siblings were off doing things, going over friend's houses and such. Suzi was alone and so she decided to do a bit more cleaning for extra cash. She cleaned up the livingroom by vacuming, dusting, and throwing away old newspapers and other papers. She told us she was so caught up in cleaning, that it was four fifteen when she saw what time it was and remembered the baby-sitting job.

Suzi hopped onto her bike and rode over to the Dawes's as quick as she could. Needless to say, Mr. and Mrs. Dawes acted just like Mrs. Papadakis, excused Suzi and left. So, at five when they came back, Suzi was paid a little less than usual, but she understood why and didn't say anything about it except, "I'm terribly sorry." I felt bad for her. How many things could go wrong for the new Baby-Sitter's club? I wasn't sure and I didn't want us to make any more mistakes. I sure hoped I wouldn't make any!


	9. Chapter 9: Major Club Problems

**T**hat night, at the club meeting in my room, Suzi was the last to arrive and Jenny actually showed for the meeting! Karen seemed to be in a very bad mood so I ignored her practicly the whole time.

"Okay, Jenny, where were you last meeting?" Karen demanded as soon as everyone was in my room and had a seat.

"I...had to go somewhere with my mom. We went to a jewlery show in Stamford. I'm sorry...did I miss anything important?" Jenny really did sound sorry. Karen rolled her eyes once again.

"Yes, you did actually. _You _missed alot of great jobs and you didn't pay dues either." Karen told her. Jenny blushed.

"Okay, here's my dues." Jenny pulled a dollar bill out of her round lightblue handbag. It had a beaded dark blue flower on it.

"Now that that's said and done, let's get down to business. First of all, I wanna say that _some_ people need to make more commitment to this club." Karen glanced at Myriah, Jenny, and Suzi. Nina cast a wary look at me from on Margo's bed. I shrugged to her.

"I know you're all very sorry, but you need to pay more attention. My step-sister and the original club members made mistakes too, I guess. But this club is very important to me and it must be of some importantance to you guys if you're in it. Okay? Please, guys stop making these little mistakes." I knew Karen was trying to sound nice but still, geesh.

Myriah, Jenny, and Suzi mumbled their apologizes and said they'd try harder. Soon, job calls were coming in and I put some music in, the first Sugarpuff Girls album. After the fourth call, Karen set the phone down looking a little irritated.

"Okay, we've got a pretty big job and I figured we might need two sitters for this one. It's tomorrow and it's a birthday party at the Cassedeny's. There's going to be six kids there. Myriah, who's free?"

Myriah checked the record book and the only two people free were Nina and Jenny. They took the job and Myriah wrote it down. Karen called back the Cassendeny's and told them who was sitting. It was silent for a little while, except for the sounds of the Sugarpuff Girls from my boombox on my nightstand.

"Okay...does anyone have any club business?" asked Karen. Everyone shook their heads.

"Okay, um, did everyone read the club notebook?" Karen tried again. Jenny of course, hadn't so she read and I guess reading it made her understand what was going on with Myriah and Suzi.

"Well, it's almost six. This meeting of the Baby-Sitters Club is dismissed." Karen said loudly. Everyone quickly got up and left muttering things under their breath. I layed back down on my bed.

I reached for one of my Care Bears. I've collected Care Bears since forever. I'm amazed I have so many and they're all on my bed. I have Tenderheart Bear, Bedtime Bear, one of the twin baby bears (Hugs Bear), Swift Heart Rabbit, Love a Lot Bear, and a whole bunch more, all the originals I guess. Some of them I've had, I get some at yard sales and at flea markets, and I even bought at least four or five of them on E-Bay. But that's a little off subject....

I thought a lot about the meetings we'd been having and some of the mistakes we've had. I hope they'd stop as quick as they had started.

That night, Margo was sleeping over at a friend's house and I had my room to myself. It was probably ten o'clock when my mom came in. She sat down on my bed with me. "Have a fun meeting?" she asked.

"I guess so. Our club's been having some major problems lately. Jenny missed a meeting and didn't call us to tell us she was going to, Myriah's too busy to take her own jobs, and Suzi forgot her own baby-sitting job today." I told Mom all the things that had been happening to the club.

"You guys will overcome this. I know you will." Mom had told me. I sure hoped she was right.


	10. Chapter 10: Happy BirthdayNot

**_Thursday_**

_**Today me and Jenny had a big sitting job at the**_

_**Cassendeny's. It was Jaki's birthday and she had invited her five other friends. Jenny and me had our hands full and no offense, Jenny made a lot of mistakes you shouldn't make while baby-sitting. Jenny, you need to try a lot harder at baby-sitting. You sometimes act like you have never seen a kid before, gosh. **_

**T**he next day, Thursday was a bad day for baby-sitting. I felt really bad for Nina and Jenny. When Nina told me all about her job, and when she wrote it in the notebook, both versions sounded bad. Jenny badly needed to take baby-sitting lessons.

Nina told me she and Jenny rode over early to help out and they brought cards for the birthday girl, Jaki who was turning eight. All her other friends would be their too. Six kids in all. Mrs. Cassendeny was glad to see them both early, so the girls set to work decorating the livingroom and diningroom with an overly excited Jaki. Nina helped her get dressed into a yellow party dress with a silky white sash, Mary Janes, white tights, and a plastic gold birthday girl tiara. Then they helped set out party food and snacks in the livingroom. Mrs. Cassendeny was very grateful for their help.

At one o'clock the guests began to arrive and Nina instructed them to put their gifts on the coffee table and all that. Jenny was standing idly by the whole time looking very bored and like she'd rather be anywhere but at that birthday party. Nina ran over to her.

"Help get them ready to play telephone." Nina whispered to her. Jenny let out a deep and aggravated fake sigh, folded her arms, and said, "That's a baby game."

"No, it is not. Tell them to sit in a circle and get ready." Nina sat down on the floor and everyone followed. Jenny didn't say anything. She sat down on the floor too though, much to her own dismay.

"Okay, everyone. Jenny's going to explain what we're playing." Nina said cheerfully. She looked over at Jenny, who was twisting some pink gum she had been chewing around her finger.

"Really?" said Jenny, without any clue as to what was going on.

"Jenny!" Nina whispered quickly. Jaki and all her party guests (which were all girls) stared at Jenny expectedly. In the end, Nina explained the game and they played for quite a long extent of time. Jenny played along too, but really didn't want to. She still thought the game was babyish and she hated sitting on the floor with her new designer white pants.

Next, Mrs. Cassendeny decided it was time for cake and ice cream. Nina herded everyone into the diningroom and took her seat next to Jaki. Jenny sat across from her at the table. She looked extremly bored. She let out a fake yawn that made Nina cringe. "Okay, let's all sing 'Happy Birthday' to Jaki." said Nina when Mrs. Cassendeny set the beautifully decorated french vanilla cake on the table. Everyone sang, except Jenny. Mrs. Cassendeny took lots of picutres the whole time. While everyone else ate their cake, candy, and ice cream, Nina pulled Jenny aside in the kitchen.

"Jenny, what's your deal?" asked Nina.

"This is _so _boring. Little kids have _the worst _birthday parties. Ho hum." Jenny told Nina. Nina clapped a hand to her forehead.

"Jenny, please work with me." Nina said. Jenny didn't say anything, but she did yawn once again. Nina despertly hoped that Mrs. Cassendeny or Jaki weren't picking up on Jenny's behavior. The next thing they did was watch Jaki open her presents. Jenny kept making snide comments under her breath as Jaki opened all her gifts. She got quite an assortment of gifts, stuffed animals, Hello Kitty toys, a Strawberry Shortcake doll, videos, and lots of cards and even a $50 bill from her grandparents.

After the party, Mrs. Marshall drove Jenny home. Nina didn't say anything to Jenny the whole time they were riding together.


	11. Chapter 11: Mayhem or Chaos

**W**hile Jenny and Nina were having their birthday party "adventure", I was at home doing a little packing for Sea City. I even found an album with loads of picutres in it. There was one from when Stacey McGill and Mary Anne Spier (two of the club members from when I was little) came with us to help baby-sit. It was of me and Stacey when were at Fred's Putt Putt course, the mini golf place. I remembered that I had won a free game that year. I'm not really a great golfer to tell you the truth, and I'm sure I wasn't back then either. Also in the album was a picutre of Margo and Karen in their mermaid outfits at the Fun in the Sun festival one year. I couldn't believe all the good times we had in Sea City, I could not wait to go back. Two more days to go and I still didn't know who to bring with me.

On Friday, I went to the Newton's for my sitting job with Lucy. Jamie was there too, he had a dentist appointment and Lucy didn't want to go. Mrs. Newton gave me the instructions and she and Jamie left.

"Hey, Lucy. Remember me? My name's Claire Pike." I told her brightly.

"Hi-hi Claire Pike. Wanna see the new picutre I drew?" Lucy asked me.

"Sure." I replied and Lucy led me into the kitchen. She showed me a picutre of some flowers she had drawn. It was actually pretty good.

"Very nice picutre." I told her.

"Thank you. Wanna draw with me?" Lucy asked me. So we decided to draw at the kitchen table. I was in the middle of showing Lucy how to draw unicorns when the phone rang.

"Can I get it?" asked Lucy.

"No thanks Luce, I better get it." so I picked up the phone and guess who it was? It ws Karen and she sounded mad.

"Guess what?" she asked me angryily.

"What?"

"The only people at this meeting are me and Nina!"

"WHAT?!"

"My thoughts exactly. Suzi forgot, Myriah forgot to tell us about this shoe sale at the mall she's going to, _and _to top that off, Jenny's not here either."

"Oh my gosh, I can not believe that. Do you want me to come over?"

"Please do."

"Okay, me and Lucy will be right over." I hung up the phone feeling very peeved. The Baby-Sitters club wasn't working out as well as I had hoped. Sure, we were getting jobs but then again, there were problems with the club members. If our clients found out about these problems, they wouldn't want our club's business anymore. I was angry, not just at my friends and so called fellow club members, but at the thought of having no more club business. It was sad too. The original baby-sitters club had run the club for quite a few years and now that they were older, we decided to past it on and run it too. I wanted Kristy, Stacey, Claudia, Dawn, Jessi, Mary Anne, Abby, and exspecially Mallory to be proud of us. I realized this was all I wanted the most.

I told Lucy we were going over my house for a little while and left a note for Mrs. Newton, knowing that she'd be home soon and for in case she came home earlier than planned.

Minutes later, Lucy and I burst into my bedroom, where their was a terrible scene before my eyes. _Everyone _was in my room. The whole club and they were all screaming and yelling. Karen was shouting at the top her lungs at Jenny, calling her the worst and most obscene names she could think of, Myriah was yelling at both Karen and Suzi, and Nina seemed to be calling everyone mean names and yelling for them to be queit. Lucy looked up at me waryily. I knew she was worried and she didn't know what was going on. I knew it was up to me to do something, and fast.


	12. Chapter 12: Fixing The Problems

**I **rushed into Nicky's bedroom, Lucy at my heels. I knew what I was looking for. I ran to the closet and pulled down a bullhorn from the top shelf.

"What's that for?" asked Lucy, wide eyed.

"You'll see." I replied.

We rushed back into my room. No one had even noticed I was home. I pressed the button on the bullhorn and a loud sound came out of it. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at me.

"Hey guys." I said. Lucy was still looked worried, by the way.

"Oh...um, hi Claire." said Karen slowly. She hung her head and she looked awfully guilty. Nina and Myriah were looking at their feet, Jenny was examining her nails, and Suzi walked over and sat down in my butterfly chair.

"Guys, what's been going on?" I asked. No one said anything. Karen cleared her throat as if to say something but she didn't.

"Guys, I...I can't beleive you. Don't all of you want to be in this club?" I asked. There was a slight murmur in which everyone said, "I do." in hopeful voices. The silence was akward. I knew still that it was up to me.

"Guys, please can we work harder to make this club better? I know you've been trying and you're all sorry but please, let's make some progress here." I said. Then,

"I'm sorry I've been so bossy these past couple of meetings. I know it hasn't been much fun for you. I'll...I'll loosen up more. Okay?" Karen said. Myriah, Nina, Suzi, Jenny and I smiled.

"You know what? I'm sorry too. I wanna be part of this club, I...I think it's a great idea and I'll work harder and come to more meetings. Okay?" that was Jenny.

"_I _will try not to forget any more jobs or meetings. I picked that habit up from my mom I guess." said Suzi. We all laughed. (Mrs. Barrett used to be very absentminded and too busy to clean stuff up.)

"Okay, okay...I'll make sure I have more time for baby-sitting, and when I don't I'll remember to tell you." said Myriah. We all looked at Nina. She blushed. To tell you my opinion, Nina hadn't really done anything. We all laughed.

"Sorry for nothing." she said. Lucy laughed along with us and minutes later, we held a regular meeting with Lucy there too.

Soon enough, Mrs. Newton arrived to pick up Lucy.

"You guys really do have a great club. I'm so glad you're picking up where they left off." she said as she handed me my money for watching Lucy. I grinned and looked at the other five members of the Baby-Sitters club, they were grinning too. To top things off, Lucy leaned over to her mother and said, "Someday, I'm going to join the Baby-Sitters Club too."


	13. Chapter 13: Arrival In Sea City

**T**hat night, I did my final packing for Sea City, New Jersey. We were leaving early the next morning. I was as excited as I was every year. I was thinking of the ocean, the board walk, the guys...

I packed my suitcase full of shorts, capris, tanktops, mini skirts, sundresses, bathing suits, and sandals. The usual stuff. I packed sun block, sunglasses, and some jewelery and make up. I also packed a backpack with books, videos, CD's, my CD player, and a stuffed Care Bear. I threw in my Strawberry Shortcake blanket just as mom came in to check my progress.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

"Good. I have everything I think." I told her.

"Great. So how's the Baby-Sitters Club these days?"

I was glad to reply, "Just fine Mom, we're just fine."

The next morning, bright and early, Nicky packed his car, Vanessa packed hers, and mom and dad packed Mom's car. (We have four cars total.) Margo was going with Vanessa and I was going with mom and dad. As we threw things into the car, I was thinking, _Sea City here we come! _

The trip was long and yet again, the trip always is. As I sat in the back seat, amist boxes and suitcases, and cartons of supplies, I thought for a long time. I thought about the Baby-Sitters Club and how far it had gone. It was truly amazing, after all the years. I decided that I was going to keep a journal about all the memories I had with the Baby-Sitters Club, back when I was only five years old. I started with writing about how Kristy Thomas started the club and about all the original members. I decided to add drawings and picutres too. The journal/scrapbook gave me plenty to do on the car ride there and by the time we pulled into our beautiful old beach house, the same one we stayed in every year, I was already writing about the day when Stacey and Mallory were baby-sitting and Margo and Vanessa put this weird shampoo sample stuff in my hair. I remembered it took a long time to get all of it out of my hair.

Nicky, Vanessa, Margo, Mom, Dad, and me helped put things in the house. Our beach house is very big and old fashioned. It's yellow with curvy white decorations and trimming. Also, it faces the life guard stand so we can just run out onto the beach, that's how close we were. Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and I ran up the stairs to claim rooms. Now let's see, there are five bedrooms, we'd each have our own! Yes. Personally, I wanted the yellow bedroom so I claimed it first. Nicky took the room at the very end of the hall, Vanessa took the pink bedroom, and Margo took the one she and I used to share next to Mom and Dad's room.

My bedroom is very old fashioned too, to match the house I guess. It had a wooden floor and yellow flowery wall paper. I threw myself onto one of the beds. I couldn't wait to hit the boardwalk, but first I unpacked all my stuff and then I remembered something.

I remembered that this was the room Mary Anne and Stacey shared when they came with us one year. It was actually pretty weird remembering that, but I shook it out of my mind as I unpacked my things and put my cloths into the drawers of the old dresser. I was staying for two weeks, why not make things a little roomy?

After I finished unpacking, I begged Mom and Dad to let me go onto the boardwalk. I wanted to spend some cash! Hard earned baby-sitting money actually. Mom and Dad let me go to the boardwalk with Margo, who wanted to go to. Nicky decided to go to the beach and Vanessa came with Margo and I.

Let me tell you a little about the boardwalk too. There are alot of neat shops, stores, and resturaunts. There's a penny candy store called Candy Heaven, there's the ice cream place, The Ice Cream Palace, there's the Burger Garden, Trampoline Land, the golf course, and of course, the other cute little shops that self souviners and awesome clothes. I decided that I wanted to get a gift for each of the club members, in honor of the new Baby-Sitters Club. I looked and looked until I found the perfect gift for each of my friends. For Jenny, I got her a silver pin in the shape of a bow, I got Myriah a big bag of assorted candies, I got Nina a necklace with lots of little heart charms, I got Suzi a vacation journal with a picutre of Sea City on it, and for Karen I got her a visor, for conducting club meetings with.

At the end of the day Mom and Dad let me walk along the beach by myself. It was really cool down by the water and there was something there that made the atmosphere feel warmer. Maybe it was me thinking about all the times I had when I was five and the times I had with the members of the Baby-Sitters Club, either that or thinking about all the good times I'll have now that I'm a member of the Baby-Sitters Club.


	14. Chapter 14: Letter Home

**Chapter 14**

_Monday_

_Dear members of the Baby-Sitter's Club, _

_How are all of you? Are you getting any sitting jobs? I bet you are, the club seems to be as popular as ever! :-) Well, I just wanted to send you all this package. Inside is a gift for each of you club members. Hope you're having as much fun as I am and fill me in on everything's that happening in Stoneybrook as soon as I get back! Luv ya all, yours truly,_

_-Claire Pike, your vice-president_

_P.S.-I'm so glad Kristy started the Baby-Sitters Club_

**-----------------------------------------------------------------**

THE END!!!!!!!!!!!

--Finally, tis the end! Wow. Much love and many, many thanks to the readers and reveiwers of this fic, thanks everybody!! I'm so glad though, that most of you enjoyed it. Well coming upnext is another BSC fanfic by me that I hope you all will enjoy:

**#2 Suzi Meets her Match**

Thanks everybody for reading and reveiwing!


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